Basic Marketing: A Global−Managerial Approach Chapter 19 pptx

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
Allegiance is going to charge prices
that are profitable and still keep the
hospitals’ business, it must find
ways to give them better value on
each dollar they spend. There’s
some evidence that Allegiance is
successful doing just that.
That’s not to suggest that the
firm was doing poorly before. It
wasn’t. But its strategy wasn’t
producing the profits that
were expected. New prod-
ucts and improved
services—designed to help
hospitals cut the costs of pur-
chasing, handling, and storing
critical supplies—were well
544
Chapter Nineteen
Implementing and

Controlling
Marketing Plans:
Evolution and
Revolution
544
When You
Finish This Chapter,
You Should
1. Understand how
information technol-
ogy is speeding up
feedback for better
implementation and
control.
2. Know why effective
implementation is
critical to customer
satisfaction and
profits.
3. Know how total
quality management
can improve imple-
mentation_including
implementation of
service quality.
4. Understand how
sales analysis can aid
marketing strategy
planning.
5. Understand the dif-

ferences in sales
analysis, performance
analysis, and per-
formance analysis
using performance
indexes.
6. Understand the dif-
ference between the
full-cost approach
and the contribution-
margin approach.
7. Understand how
planning and control
can be combined to
improve the market-
ing management
process.
8. Understand what a
marketing audit is
and when and where
it should be used.
9. Understand the
important new terms
(shown in red).
Allegiance Healthcare Corpora-
tion supplies goods and services
to hospitals. Hospitals everywhere
are under pressure to cut costs but
still provide excellent care. So if
place

price
promotion
produc
Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
place
price
promotion
product
www.mhhe.com/fourps
545
www.mhhe.com/fourps
545
ct
received but were producing
slim profit margins. So man-
agement asked employees
throughout the company to
make suggestions on ways to
improve how the firm was
implementing its strategy.

They came up with a variety of
suggestions.
For example, Allegiance
carries over 100,000 products.
Some it manufactures, but it
also sells products produced
by thousands of other suppli-
ers. It seemed that this variety
was what hospitals needed.
Yet many of the employee
concerns were related to the
massive assortment of goods.
Moreover, when marketing
managers did a careful analy-
sis of sales by region and
product line they found that
the company’s profitable level
of sales was masking a prob-
lem: 57 percent of the
products accounted for just
2 percent of sales. Further
analysis showed that these
same products accounted for
a larger than average share of
the total costs. While they
were waiting to be ordered,
they were sitting in ware-
houses all over the country,
running up storing costs. By
analyzing sales within product

categories, marketing man-
agers were able to see where
there was duplication and
what they could drop. After all,
they probably didn’t need to
give hospitals a choice among
47 different types of bedpans.
Then they worked to make
distribution of the products
they kept more efficient.
Products that hospitals
order frequently—popular
styles of gloves, caps, nee-
dles, and sutures—are
stocked in the 68 regional
distribution centers close to
customers. Items that hospi-
tals order somewhat less
frequently—like odd sizes of
surgical gloves—are shipped
nationwide from a single distri-
bution center in Illinois. The
changes allowed the firm to
cut out 30 local warehouses
and still offer hospitals a
just-in-time delivery program
Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e

19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
546 Chapter 19
Our primary emphasis in this book is on the strategy planning part of the
marketing manager’s job. There’s a good reason for this focus. The one-time strat-
egy decisions—those that decide what business the company is in and the
strategies it will follow—set the firm on a course either toward profitable oppor-
tunities or, alternatively, toward costly failure. If a marketing manager makes an
error with these basic decisions, there may never be a second chance to set things
straight. In contrast, if good strategies and plans are developed, the marketing
manager—and everyone else in the organization—knows what needs to be done.
Thus, good marketing plans set the framework for effective implementation and
control.
Even so, developing a potentially profitable plan does not ensure either satis-
fied customers or profit for the firm. Achieving the outcomes envisioned in the
plan requires that the whole marketing management process work well. As you
learned in Chapter 2, the marketing management process includes not only mar-
keting strategy planning but also implementation and control. See Exhibit 2-5. In
fact, in today’s highly competitive markets customer satisfaction often hinges on
skillful implementation. Further, the ongoing success of the firm is often depen-
dent on
control—the feedback process that helps the marketing manager learn
(1) how ongoing plans and implementation are working and (2) how to plan for
the future.
We discussed some specific opportunities and challenges with respect to imple-

mentation and control as we introduced each of the marketing strategy decision
areas. In this chapter, we’ll go into more depth on concepts and how-to approaches
by using its own trucks. With
just-in-time delivery, the hospi-
tals carry very few supplies in
inventory. For example, the
same day a patient is sched-
uled to go into surgery a
package arrives with the 200
items needed for that patient’s
procedure. They’re all packed
in the precise order that the
surgeons and nurses will use
them. There’s a skin marker to
trace a seven-inch incision,
bone wax to stanch the bleed-
ing, suction tips to clear blood,
plus scalpels, sutures, and, oh
yes, gloves, and gowns.
With these changes in how
distribution is implemented,
it’s the sales rep’s job to
show the hospitals that these
systems save money. Each
hospital has to agree to pay a
fee for the special services,
as well as the price of the
supplies. This improves Alle-
giance’s profit margins. But
Allegiance also promises that

this collaboration will cut the
hospital’s total cost of
supplies. Then they split
the savings. For many hospi-
tals, millions of dollars are
saved.
What’s more, by continu-
ously improving the system,
the level of customer satisfac-
tion has increased. For
example, Allegiance now uses
EDI and e-commerce to deal
with 90 percent of its suppli-
ers, which reduces stock-
outs. As a result, 95 percent of
the items that hospitals order
are available immediately. Fur-
ther, customers can now easily
order any of 100,000 products
online at www.allegiance.net.
With this kind of help, hospi-
tals can focus on their real job:
helping patients get well.
1
Good Plans Set the Framework for Implementation and Control
Implementation puts
plans into operation
—
and control provides
feedback

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
Implementing and Controlling Marketing Plans: Evolution and Revolution 547
for making implementation and control more effective. We’ll start with a discussion
of how dramatic improvements in information technology and e-commerce are
resulting in changes in implementation and control—and in the whole strategy
planning process. For many firms, these changes are critically important. They offer
revolutionary new ways to meet customer needs. Next we’ll highlight some of the
new approaches, including total quality management, that are improving marketing
implementation. Then we’ll explain how marketing managers use control-related
tools, such as sales and performance analysis, to improve the quality of planning
and implementation decisions. We’ll conclude with a discussion of what a market-
ing audit is, and why it is sometimes necessary.
This state-of-the-art information
center has replaced over 25
individual processing centers
worldwide and allows Colgate
managers to monitor activities
across the entire supply chain
worldwide, all of which brings
products to consumers faster

and more efficiently than ever
before.
Speed Up Information for Better Implementation and Control
Feedback improves
the marketing
management process
Not long ago, marketing managers planned their strategies and put them into
action—but then it usually took a long time before they got feedback to know
if the strategy and implementation were really working as intended. For exam-
ple, a marketing manager might not have much feedback on what was happening
with sales, expenses, and profits until financial summaries were available—and
that sometimes took months or even longer. Further, summary data wasn’t very
useful in pinpointing which specific aspects of the plan were working and which
weren’t. In that environment, the feedback was so general and took so long that
there often wasn’t anything the manager could do about a problem except start
over.
That situation has now changed dramatically in many types of business. In Chap-
ter 8, we discussed how firms are using intranets, databases, and marketing
information systems to track sales and cost details day by day and week by week.
Throughout the book you’ve seen examples of how marketers get more information
faster and use it quickly to improve a strategy or its implementation. For example,
scanner data from a consumer panel can provide a marketing manager with almost
immediate feedback on whether or not a new consumer product is selling at the
expected level in each specific store and whether or not it is actually selling to the
intended target market rather than some other group. Similarly, e-commerce order
systems can feed into real-time sales reports for each product.
Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e

19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
548 Chapter 19
Marketing managers who can get faster feedback on their decisions can often
take advantage of it to develop a competitive advantage. They can quickly fine tune
a smooth-running implementation to make it work even better. If there are poten-
tial problems, they can often spot them early and keep them from turning into big
problems.
For example, a manager who gets detailed daily reports that compare actual sales
results in different cities with sales forecasts in the plan is able to see very quickly
if there is a problem in a specific city. Then the manager can track down the cause
of the problem. If sales are going slowly because the new salesperson in that city is
inexperienced, then the sales manager might immediately spend more time work-
ing with that rep. On the other hand, if the problem is that a chain of retail stores
in that particular city isn’t willing to allocate much shelf space for the firm’s prod-
uct, then the salesperson might need to develop a special analysis to show the buyers
for that specific chain how the product could improve the chain’s profit.
When information is slow coming in and there is less detail, making implemen-
tation changes is usually more difficult. By the time the need for a change is obvious,
a bigger change is required for it to have any effect.
The basic strategy planning concepts we’ve emphasized throughout the text are
enduring and will always be at the heart of marketing. Yet the fast pace that is now
possible with e-commerce in getting information for control is resulting in funda-
mental changes in how many managers work, make decisions, plan, and implement
their plans. Managers who can quickly adjust the details of their efforts to better

solve customer problems or respond to changes in the market can do a better job
for their firms—because they can make certain that their plans are really perform-
ing as expected.
Fast feedback improves implementation and control. And computers now take
the drudgery out of analyzing data. But this kind of analysis is not possible unless
the data is in machine-processible form—so it can be sorted and analyzed quickly.
Here the creative marketing manager plays a crucial role by insisting that the nec-
essary data be collected. If the data he or she wants to analyze is not captured as it
comes in, information will be difficult, if not impossible, to get later.
The marketing manager
must take charge
Lotus software allows managers
in different locations, including
different countries, to quickly
share information, which helps to
make implementation and control
faster and more effective.
Fast feedback can be a
competitive advantage
Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002

Implementing and Controlling Marketing Plans: Evolution and Revolution 549
A marketing manager may need many different types of information to improve
implementation efforts or develop new strategies. In the past, this has often caused
delays—even if the information was in a machine-processible form. In a large com-
pany, for example, it could take days or even weeks for a marketing manager to find
out how to get needed information from another department. Imagine how long it
could take for a marketing manager to get needed sales data from sales offices in
different countries around the world.
New approaches for electronic communication and e-commerce help solve these
problems. For example, many companies are using the Internet, fiber-optic tele-
phone lines, or satellite transmission systems to immediately transfer data from a
computer at one location to another. A sales manager with a laptop can pull data
off the firm’s network computer from anywhere in the world. And marketing man-
agers working on different aspects of a strategy can use e-mail messaging or online
video conferencing to communicate. A simple PC, the Internet, and software such
as LapLink make it possible for a manager to work at a computer on the other side
of the world as if he or she were sitting in front of it. Computer programs that run
on a website give even easier access.
This type of electronic pipeline makes data available instantly. A report—such
as one that summarizes sales by product, salesperson, or type of customer—that in
the past was done once a month now might be done weekly, daily, or whenever an
online user wants it. Software can be programmed to search for and flag results that
indicate a problem of some sort. Programs like Microsoft Excel can link to the new
flow of data and instantly create graphs that make the information vivid and easy
to interpret. Then the manager can allocate more time to resolving whatever par-
ticular problems show up.
Of course, many firms don’t consider or use these types of approaches. But they
are becoming much more common—especially as more marketing managers find
that they are losing out to more nimble competitors who get information more
quickly and adjust their implementation and strategies more often.

2
New information
technologies offer
speed and detail
The marketing strategy for the
kid’s book, Harry Potter and the
Goblet of Fire, called for it to be
released everywhere on the same
day. It was an implementation
challenge for Amazon.com to get
copies to 250,000 eager kids all
at once, but FedEx helped solve
the delivery problem. On another
front, Telerx helps other firms
implement their strategies by
providing customer service
outsourcing.
Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
550 Chapter 19
When a marketing manager has developed a good marketing plan, the challenge

of implementing it often involves hundreds, or thousands, of operational decisions
and activities. In a small company, these may all be handled by a few people, or
even by a single person. In a large corporation, literally hundreds of different peo-
ple may be involved in implementation. That may require a massive amount of
careful coordination and communication. Either way, when operational decisions
and activities are executed well, customers get what is intended. And if the origi-
nal plan is good, customers will be satisfied and come back again the next time the
need arises. However, even a great plan can leave customers unhappy, and switch-
ing to someone else’s offering, if implementation is poor.
Implementation is especially critical in mature and highly competitive markets.
When several firms are all following basically the same strategy—quickly imitat-
ing competitors’ ideas—customers are often won or lost based on differences in
the quality of implementation. Consider the rental car business. Hertz has a strat-
egy that targets business travelers with a choice of quality cars, convenient online
reservations, fast pick-up and drop-off, accessories like cell phones, availability at
most major airports, and a premium price. Hertz is extremely successful with this
strategy even though there is little to prevent other companies from trying the
same approach. But a major part of Hertz’s success is due to implementation.
Customers keep coming back because the Hertz service is both reliable and
pain-free.
When a Hertz #1 Club Gold customer
calls to make a reservation, the company
already has the standard information
about that customer in a computer data-
base. At the airport, the customer skips
over the line at the Hertz counter and
instead just picks up an already-com-
pleted rental contract and goes straight
to the Hertz bus. The driver gets the cus-
tomer’s name and radios ahead to have

someone start the specific car that cus-
tomer will drive. That way the air conditioner or heater is already doing its job
when the bus driver delivers the customer right to the parking slot for his or her
car. Customers are certain they’re at the right place because there’s an electronic
sign beside each car with the customer’s name on it. When the customer returns
the car, an agent comes to the car, scans the customer’s contract with a hand-held
computer, and prints the receipt.
It’s all very smooth. Making this work—day in and day out, customer after cus-
tomer—isn’t easy. But Hertz has set up systems to make it all easier because that’s
what it takes to implement its plan and to keep customers loyal.
3
As the Hertz example illustrates, marketing implementation usually involves
decisions and activities related to both internal and external matters. Figuring out
how the correct car will end up in the right parking slot, how the Hertz bus driver
will contact the office, and who will coordinate getting the message to the person
that starts the car are all internal matters. They are invisible to the customer—as
long as they work as planned. On the other hand, some implementation issues are
external and involve the customer. For example, the contract must be completed
correctly and be in the right spot when the rental customer comes to pick it up,
and someone needs to have filled the car with gas and cleaned it.
Good implementation
builds relationships
with customers
Implementation deals
with internal or
external matters
Effective Implementation Means That Plans Work as Intended
Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial

Approach, 14/e
19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
Implementing and Controlling Marketing Plans: Evolution and Revolution 551
Whether implementation decisions and activities are internal or external, they
all must be consistent with the objectives of the overall strategy and with the other
details of the plan. However, there are also three general objectives that apply to
all implementation efforts. Other things equal, the manager wants to get each imple-
mentation job done:
Better, so customers really get superior value as planned.
Faster, to avoid delays that cause customers problems.
At lower cost, without wasting money on things that don’t add value for the
customer.
The ideal of doing things better, faster, and at lower cost is easy to accept. But
in practice implementation is often complicated by trade-offs among the three
objectives. For example, doing a job better may take longer or cost more.
So just as a marketing manager should constantly look for new strategy oppor-
tunities, it’s important to be creative in looking for better solutions to implementation
problems. That may require finding ways to better coordinate the efforts of the dif-
ferent people involved, setting up standard operating procedures to deal with
recurring problems, or juggling priorities to deal with the unexpected. When the
Hertz bus driver is sick, someone still has to be there to pick up the customers and
deliver them to their cars.
Sometimes the implementation effort can be improved by approaching the task
in a new or different way. Exhibit 19-1 shows some of the ways that firms are using

information technology to improve specific implementation jobs. Note that some of
the examples in Exhibit 19-1 focus on internal matters and some on external,
customer-oriented matters.
While finding new approaches helps with some implementation problems, get-
ting better implementation often depends on being vigilant in improving what the
firm and its people are already doing. So let’s take a closer look at some important
ways that managers can improve the quality of their implementation efforts.
4
Exhibit 19-1 Examples of Approaches to Overcome Specific Marketing Implementation Problems
Marketing Mix
Decision Area Operational Problem Implementation Approach
Product Develop design of a new product as rapidly Use 3-D computer-aided design software
as possible without errors
Pretest consumer response to different Prepare sample labels with PC graphics
versions of a label software and test on Internet
Place Coordinate inventory levels with middlemen Use bar code scanner, EDI, and
to avoid stock-outs computerized reorder system
Get franchisee’s inputs and cooperation on Set up a televideo conference
a new program
Promotion Quickly distribute TV ad to local stations in Distribute final video version of the ad via
many different markets satellite link
Answer final consumers’ questions about Put a toll-free telephone number and
how to use a product website address on product label
Price Identify frequent customers for a quantity Create a “favored customer” club with an
discount ID card
Figure out if price sensitivity impacts Show unit prices (for example, per oz.) on
demand for a product; make it easier for shelf markers; set different prices in
customers to compare prices similar markets and track sales, including
sales of competing products
Implementation

requires innovation too
Implementation has
its own objectives
Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
552 Chapter 19
As we’ve seen on previous occasions throughout this book, even people with the
best intentions sometimes lapse into a production orientation. When the pressure
is on to get a job done, they forget about satisfying the customer—let alone con-
sider working together! When the product manager is screaming for a budget report,
the accountant may view a customer’s concerns about a billing error as something
a salesperson can smooth over—alone.
There are many different ways to improve implementation in each of the four Ps
decision areas, but here we will focus on total quality management, which you can
use to improve any implementation effort. With
total quality management (TQM),
everyone in the organization is concerned about quality, throughout all of the firm’s
activities, to better serve customer needs.
In Chapter 9 we explained that product quality means the ability of a product
to satisfy a customer’s needs or requirements. Now we’ll expand that idea and think
about the quality of the whole marketing mix and how it is implemented—to meet

customer requirements.
Most of the early attention in quality management focused on reducing defects
in goods produced in factories. Reliable goods are important, but there’s usually a
lot more to marketing implementation than that. Yet if we start by considering prod-
uct defects, you’ll see how the total quality management idea has evolved and how
it applies to implementing a marketing program.
At one time most firms assumed defects were an inevitable part of mass produc-
tion. They assumed the cost of replacing defective parts or goods was just a cost of
doing business—an insignificant one compared to the advantages of mass produc-
tion. However, many firms were forced to rethink this assumption when Japanese
producers of cars, electronics, and cameras showed that defects weren’t inevitable.
And their success in taking customers away from established competitors made it
clear that the cost of defects wasn’t just the cost of replacement!
Customers want the paint on
their new Toyota Tundra to be
free from any scratches and that
requires attention to
implementation details. Factory
workers take off their jewelry,
wear shirts with rubber buttons,
and use belts with special
buckles that leave no metal
exposed.
Total quality
management meets
customer requirements
Total quality
management is not just
for factories
Building Quality into the Implementation Effort

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
553
From the customer’s point of view, getting a defective product and having to com-
plain about it is a big headache. The customer can’t use the defective product and
suffers the inconvenience of waiting for someone to fix the problem—if someone
gets around to it. It certainly doesn’t deliver superior value. Rather, it erodes good-
will and leaves customers dissatisfied. The big cost of poor quality is the cost of lost
customers.
Much to the surprise of some production-oriented managers, the Japanese
experience showed that it is less expensive to do something right the first time
than to pay to do it poorly and then pay again to fix problems. And quality wasn’t
just a matter of adding more assembly-line inspections. Products had to be
designed to meet customer needs from the start. One defective part in 10,000
may not seem like much, but if that part keeps a completed car from cranking
at the end of the automaker’s production line, finding the problem is a costly
nightmare.
Firms that adopted TQM methods to reduce manufacturing defects soon used the
same approaches to overcome many other implementation problems. Their success
brought attention to what is possible with TQM—whether the implementation
problem concerns unreliable delivery schedules, poor customer service, advertising

that appears on the wrong TV show, or salespeople who can’t answer customers’
questions.
The idea of doing things right the first time seems obvious, but it’s easier said
than done. Problems always come up, and it’s not always clear what isn’t being done
as well as it could be. Most people tend to ignore problems that don’t pose an imme-
diate crisis. But firms that adopt TQM always look for ways to improve
implementation with
continuous improvement—a commitment to constantly make
things better one step at a time. Once you accept the idea that there may be a bet-
ter way to do something and you look for it, you may just find it! The place to start
is to clearly define “defects” in the implementation process, from the customer’s
point of view. Because continuous improvement hinges on employee involvement
and communication, many companies display all suggestions for improvements
where employees can see them.
Pillsbury Rings in Satisfied Customers
There are thousands of ways that a plan or its
implementation can go astray. The consumer’s box of
laundry detergent may be missing the measuring
scoop. The VCR’s instructions may be very clear
about how to record a program but not explain how
to hook the VCR to a consumer’s cable box. Left
unresolved, implementation glitches like these might
result in dissatisfied customers. So most producers
now have toll-free telephone lines and Internet
websites to help customers with questions and
complaints.
Pillsbury’s line is typical. Some calls involve a
question or praise, but about a third are complaints.
For example, one caller reported that a cake mix had
a funny taste. The service rep asked the caller for a

code number on the box and, after keying it in on her
computer, found that the box of mix was six years
old. Perhaps the consumer forgot it in her pantry, or
perhaps it was lost in some retailer’s storeroom.
Either way, the Pillsbury rep apologized and sent a
coupon for a free replacement box.
The calls can also provide important feedback. For
example, soon after Pillsbury introduced Funfetti cake
mix with bits of edible confetti, callers began com-
plaining that the confetti packet was missing from their
box. A check of the manufacturing line showed the
confetti packets were too light to alert weight scales
when they were missing from the boxes. After the firm
changed to a foil package the complaints stopped.
Toll-free lines and easy-response features built into
websites probably don’t win many new customers.
But they do help a firm keep its current customers.
Further, one study found that callers who had their
complaints resolved on average told five people
about the help they got. Yet there is also a risk. Those
who weren’t satisfied told twice as many people.
5
www.mhhe.com/fourps
Getting a handle on
doing things right the
first time
Having dissatisfied
customers is costly
Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A

Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
554 Chapter 19
Managers who use the TQM approach think of quality improvement as a sort-
ing process—a sorting out of things gone right and things gone wrong. The sorting
process calls for detailed measurements related to a problem. Then managers use a
set of statistical tools to analyze the measurements and identify the problem areas
that are the best candidates for fixing. The statistical details are beyond our focus
here, but it’s useful to get a feel for how managers use the tools.
Let’s consider the case of a restaurant that does well during the evening hours
but wants to improve its lunch business. The restaurant develops a strategy that tar-
gets local businesspeople with an attractive luncheon buffet. The restaurant decides
on a buffet because research shows that target customers want a choice of good
healthy food and are willing to pay reasonable prices for it—as long as they can eat
quickly and get back to work on time.
As the restaurant implements its new strategy, the manager wants a measure of
how things are going. So she encourages customers to fill out comment cards that
ask “How did we do today?” After several months of operation, things seem to be
going reasonably well—although business is not as brisk as it was at first. The
manager reads the comment cards and divides the ones with complaints into cate-
gories—to count up different reasons why customers weren’t satisfied.
Then the manager creates a graph showing a frequency distribution for the dif-
ferent types of complaints. Quality people call this a

Pareto chart—a graph that
shows the number of times a problem cause occurs, with problem causes ordered
from most frequent to least frequent. The manager’s Pareto chart, shown in Exhibit
19-2, reveals that customers complain most frequently that they have to wait for a
seat. There were other common complaints—the buffet was not well organized, the
table was not clean, and so on. However, the first complaint is much more com-
mon than the next most frequent.
This type of pattern is typical. The worst problems often occur over and over
again. This focuses the manager’s attention on which implementation problem to
fix first. A rule of quality management is to slay the dragons first—which simply
means start with the biggest problem. After removing that problem, the battle
moves on to the next most frequent problem. If you do this continuously, you solve
a lot of problems—and you don’t just satisfy customers, you delight them.
Number of complaints
(June–September)
Reason for complaint:
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Had to wait for seats
Buffet table not well organized
Table not clean
Room too drafty
Missing utensil at place setting
Had to wait for coffee
No dietetic sweetener

provided
Exhibit 19-2
Pareto Chart Showing
Frequency of Different
Complaints
Slay the dragons first
Starting with customer
needs
Things gone right and
things gone wrong
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So far, our manager has only identified the problem. To solve it, she creates a
fishbone diagram—a visual aid that helps organize cause-and-effect relationships
for “things gone wrong.”
Our restaurant manager, for example, discovers that customers wait to be seated
because tables aren’t cleared soon enough. In fact, the Pareto chart (Exhibit 19-2)
shows that customers also complain frequently about tables not being clean. So the
two implementation problems may be related.
The manager’s fishbone diagram (Exhibit 19-3) summarizes the various causes for

tables not being cleaned quickly. There are different basic categories of causes—
restaurant policy, procedures, people problems, and the physical environment. With
this overview of different ways the service operation is going wrong, the manager can
decide what to fix. She establishes different formal measures. For example, she counts
how frequently different causes delay customers from being seated. She finds that the
cashier’s faulty credit card scanning machine holds up check processing. About half
the time the cashier has to stop and enter the credit card information by hand. The
fishbone diagram shows that restaurant policy is to clear the table after the entire
party leaves. But customers have to wait at their tables while the staff deals with the
faulty credit card machine, and cleaning is delayed. With the credit card machine
replaced, the staff can clear the tables sooner—and because they’re not so hurried
they do a better cleaning job. Two dragons are on the way to being slayed!
Internet
Internet Exercise BaRaN Systems Ltd. has developed a software product
called SQC for Excel that works with the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet pro-
gram and makes it easy to do the types of analyses that are useful for quality
management. Go to its website (www.baran-systems.com) and click on the
link for SQC for Excel. Then at that page scroll down and look at the “Quick
Tour” section. What is it about the graphs that makes it easy to see which
areas need special attention?
Figure out why things
go wrong
Can’t start clearing
soon enough
Not allowed to clear until
entire party has left
Takes too long
to pay check
Credit card
machine jams

Waitress must bring
check to desk
Policy
Waitresses not available
Waitresses spend too much time
sorting dishes in kitchen—less
time to clear
Bottlenecks in kitchen
Procedures
No standard training
People
Can’t clear promptly
Customers drink coffee
endlessly
Waitresses don't care
Poor morale
Poor pay
Not enough staff
at busy times
High
turnover
Physical environment
Takes long time to get
to kitchen
Kitchen is far from tables
Empty tables
are not cleared
quickly
Exhibit 19-3 Fishbone Diagram Showing Cause and Effect for “Why Tables Are Not Cleared Quickly”
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Our case shows that people in different areas of the restaurant affect customer
satisfaction. The waitperson couldn’t do what was needed to satisfy customers
because the cashier had trouble with the credit card machine. The TQM approach
helps everyone see and understand how their job affects what others do and the
customer’s satisfaction.
6
The restaurant case illustrates how a firm can improve implementation with
TQM approaches. We used a service example because providing customer service is
often a difficult area of implementation. Recently, marketers in service businesses
have been paying a lot of attention to improving service quality.
But some people seem to forget that almost every firm must implement service
quality as part of its plan—whether its product is primarily a service, primarily a
physical good, or a blend of both. For example, a manufacturer of ball bearings isn’t
just providing wholesalers or producers with round pieces of steel. Customers need
information about deliveries, they need orders filled properly, and they may have
questions to ask the firm’s accountant, receptionist, or engineers. Because almost
every firm must manage the service it provides customers, let’s focus on some of the
special concerns of implementing quality service.
Quality gurus like to say that the firm has only one job: to give customers exactly

what they want, when they want it, and where they want it. Marketing managers
have been saying that for some time too. But customer service is hard to implement
because the server is inseparable from the service. A person doing a specific service
job may perform one specific task correctly but still annoy the customer in a host
of other ways. Customers will not be satisfied if employees are rude or inattentive—
even if they “solve the customer’s problem.” There are two keys to improving how
people implement quality service: (1) training and (2) empowerment.
Firms that commit to customer satisfaction realize that all employees who have
any contact with customers need training—many firms see 40 hours a year of train-
ing as a minimum. Simply showing customer-contact employees around the rest of
the business—so that they learn how their contribution fits in the total effort—can
be very effective. Good training usually includes role-playing on handling different
types of customer requests and problems. This is not just sales training! A rental car
attendant who is rude when a customer is trying to turn in a car may leave the cus-
tomer dissatisfied—even if the rental car was perfect. How employees treat a
customer is as important as whether they perform the task correctly.
Companies can’t afford an army of managers to inspect how each employee
implements a strategy—and such a system usually doesn’t work anyway. Quality
cannot be “inspected in.” It must come from the people who do the service jobs.
So firms that commit to service quality empower employees to satisfy customers’
needs.
Empowerment means giving employees the authority to correct a problem
without first checking with management. At a Guest Quarters hotel, an empow-
ered room-service employee knows it’s OK to run across the street to buy the
specific bottled water a guest requests. In the Saturn car manufacturing plant,
employees can stop the assembly line to correct a problem rather than passing it
down the line.
The implementation effort sometimes leaves customers dissatisfied because they
expect much more than it is possible for the firm to deliver. Some firms react to
this by shrugging their shoulders and faulting customers for being unreasonable.

Research in the service quality area, however, suggests that the problems often go
away if marketers clearly communicate what they are offering. Customers are satis-
fied when the service matches their expectations, and careful communication leads
to reasonable expectations. Sometimes the solution is simple. At Disney World, for
example, waiting in line for a popular ride can be very tiring. Disney found, however,
Manage
expectations
—
with
good communication
Building quality
into services
Train people and
empower them to serve
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that by posting signs that show how long the wait will likely be, it reduced cus-
tomer frustration. And it allowed people to know how to pick another ride with
less waiting time.
Customers often tolerate a delay and remain satisfied with the service when they

are given a full explanation. Most airline passengers seethe at the announcement
of a takeoff delay but are happy to wait and stay safe if they know the delay is caused
by a thunderstorm high over the airport.
Implementation usually involves some routine services and some that require spe-
cial attention. Customer satisfaction increases when the two types of service
encounters are separated. For example, banks set up special windows for commercial
deposits and supermarkets have cash-only lines. In developing the marketing plan,
it’s important to analyze the types of service customers will need and plan for both
types of situations. In some cases, completely different strategies may be required.
Increasingly, firms try to use computers and other equipment to handle routine
services. ATMs are quick and convenient for dispensing cash. American Airlines’
Dial a Flight system allows customers to use a touchtone phone to check schedules
and arrival times—without the need for an operator. Similarly, the UPS website
(www.ups.com) makes it easy for customers to check the status of a delivery.
Firms that study special service requests can use training so that even unusual
customer requests become routine to the staff. Every day, hotel guests lose their keys,
bank customers run out of checks, and supermarket shoppers leave their wallets at
home. A well-run service operation anticipates these special events so service
providers can respond in a way that satisfies customers’ needs.
Quality implementation—whether in a service activity or in another activity—
doesn’t just happen by itself. Managers must show that they are committed to doing
things right to satisfy customers and that quality is everyone’s job. Without top-level
support, some people won’t get beyond their business-as-usual attitude—and TQM
won’t work. The top executive at American Express had his board of directors give
him the title Chief Quality Officer so that everyone in the company would know
he was personally involved in the TQM effort.
Separate the routine
and plan for the special
Pozzi wants its artisans to be
proud of the high-quality

windows they produce, so they
often have their photos taken
with their handiwork before it’s
shipped. Balboa wants producers
of spas to know that its controls
meet ISO 9001 quality standards
and that, as a supplier, it is
dedicated to satisfying the needs
of the spa producer’s final
consumers.
Managers lead the
quality effort
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Firms that are successful with quality programs usually go to the effort to clearly
specify and write out exactly what tasks need to be done, how, and by whom. This
may seem unnecessary. After all, most people know, in general, what they’re sup-
posed to do. However, if the tasks are clearly specified, it’s easier to see what criteria
should be used to measure performance.
Once criteria are established, there needs to be some basis on which to evaluate

the job being done. In our restaurant example, one part of the job specification for
the cashier is to process credit card payments. In that case, relevant criteria might
include the amount of time that it takes and the number of people waiting in line
to pay. If the restaurant manager had seen a record of how long it was taking to
process credit cards, she would have known that for many customers it was taking
too long. Without the measure, the precise nature of the problem was hidden.
That takes us to the issue of
benchmarking—picking a basis of comparison for
evaluating how well a job is being done. For example, consider a case in which a
firm asks each of its customers to rate their satisfaction with the sales rep with whom
they work. Then the company might benchmark each sales rep against other sales
reps on the basis of average customer satisfaction. But if the firm’s sales reps as a
group are weak, that isn’t a sensible approach. The ones that stink the least would
look good on a relative basis. Many firms try to benchmark against some external
standard. For example, a sales manager might want to benchmark against a com-
petitor’s sales reps. Or better, the manager might identify firms in which sales reps
earn superlative customer satisfaction ratings, regardless of their industry, and bench-
mark against them. That approach can also reveal job specifications—things that
should be done—that the sales manager had not considered or measured in the first
place. For example, salespeople at Saturn dealers earn high customer satisfaction rat-
ings. Office Max doesn’t sell cars, but it might benchmark against Saturn’s sales reps
to find ways to improve its office equipment sales effort.
While the cost of poor quality is lost customers, keep in mind that the type of
quality efforts we’ve been discussing also result in costs. It takes time and energy to
keep records, analyze the details of implementation efforts, and search for ways to
reduce whatever type of defects might appear. It’s important to find the right bal-
ance between quality in the implementation effort and what it costs to achieve it.
Getting a return on
quality is important
Getting every customer’s order

exactly correct is a challenge, but
it’s a basic ingredient of high-
quality service for a drive-through
restaurant. To improve order
accuracy, McDonald’s has added
computerized displays so the
customer can confirm the order.
With tires, quality means safety
and durability, so Goodyear has
continued to improve these
features with its new design for
the Aquatred tire.
Specify jobs and
benchmark
performance
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Marketing managers who lose sight of that balance have often created quality
programs that cost more than they’re worth. It’s easy to fall into the trap of run-
ning up unnecessary costs trying to improve some facet of implementation that really

isn’t that important to customer satisfaction or customer retention. When that hap-
pens, customers may still be satisfied, but the firm can’t make a profit because of the
extra costs. In other words, there isn’t a financial return on the money spent to
improve the quality of the implementation effort. Remember that getting everyone
to work together to satisfy customers should be the route to profits. If the firm is
spending money on quality efforts that don’t really provide the customer with supe-
rior value—that cost more to provide than customers will ultimately be willing to
pay—then someone has lost sight of the marketing concept.
As this suggests, TQM is not a cure-all. Further, it is not the only method for
improving marketing implementation, but it is an important approach. Some firms
don’t yet use TQM; they may be missing an opportunity. Other firms apply some
quality methods but act like they are the private property of a handful of “quality
specialists” who want to control things. That’s not good either. Everyone must own
a TQM effort and keep a balanced view of how it improves customer satisfaction
and what it costs.
As more marketing managers see the benefits of TQM, it will become a more
important part of marketing thinking, especially marketing implementation. And
when managers really understand implementation, they can do a better job devel-
oping strategies and plans in the first place.
7
Control Provides Feedback to Improve Plans and Implementation
We’ve said that computers and other types of information technology are
speeding up the flow of feedback and prompting a revolution by allowing managers
to improve plans and implementation quickly and continuously. On the other hand,
the basic questions that a modern marketing manager wants to answer to make
better implementation and strategy decisions are pretty similar to what they’ve
always been.
A good manager wants to know which products’ sales are highest and why, which
products are profitable, what is selling where, and how much the marketing process
is costing. Managers need to know what’s happening, in detail, to improve the bot-

tom line.
Unfortunately, traditional accounting reports are usually too general to be much
help in answering these questions. A company may be showing a profit, while
80 percent of its business comes from only 20 percent of its products—or customers.
The other 80 percent may be unprofitable. But without special analyses, managers
won’t know it. This 80/20 relationship is fairly common—and it is often referred
to as the 80/20 rule.
What happened with Ben & Jerry’s Peace Pops premium ice-cream bars is a good
example. The initial plan called for intensive distribution of boxes of Peace Pops in
supermarket freezer cases—to compete with competitors like Dove Bar and Häagen-
Dazs. But after six months total sales were 50 percent lower than expected. However,
detailed sales analysis by package and channel revealed a bright spot: Individual
Peace Pops were selling very well in local delis. After further work to better
understand the reasons for this focused success, Ben & Jerry’s marketing people real-
ized that most of their target customers saw the premium-price Peace Pop as an
impulse product rather than as a staple they were willing to heap into a shopping
cart. So Ben & Jerry’s revised the strategy to better reach impulse buyers at con-
venience stores. Within a year, the revised strategy worked. Sales increased
Keeping a firmer hand
on the controls
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60 percent, and sales analysis showed that 70 percent of the sales were at conve-
nience stores. A few years later, however, sales analysis showed that sales were slowly
trending down. Rather than wait for a painful death of the product, they replaced
it with a new item.
8
As the Ben & Jerry’s example shows, it is possible for marketing managers to get
detailed information about how marketing plans are working—but only if they ask
for and help develop the necessary data. In this section, we’ll discuss the kinds of
information that can be available and how to use it. The techniques are not really
complicated. They basically require only simple arithmetic—and of course com-
puters quickly and easily take care of that when a large volume of sorting, adding,
and subtracting is required.
Sales Analysis Shows What’s Happening
But a marketing
manager must ask for it
What to ask for varies
Sales analysis—a detailed breakdown of a company’s sales records—can be very
informative. Detailed data can keep marketing executives in touch with what’s
happening in the market. In addition, routine sales analyses prepared each week
or month may show trends and allow managers to check their hypotheses and
assumptions.
9
Some managers resist sales analysis, or any analysis for that matter, because they
don’t appreciate how valuable it can be. One top executive in a large firm made no
attempt to analyze company sales, even by geographic area. When asked why, the
executive replied: “Why should we? We’re making money!”
But today’s profit is no guarantee that you’ll make money tomorrow. In fact,
ignoring sales analysis can lead not only to poor sales forecasting but to poor deci-

sions in general. One manufacturer did much national advertising on the assumption
that the firm was selling all over the country. But a simple sales analysis showed
that most present customers were located within a 250-mile radius of the factory!
In other words, the firm didn’t know who and where its customers were—and it
wasted most of the money it spent on national advertising.
Detailed sales analysis is only possible if a manager asks for the data. Valuable
sales information is often buried—perhaps on sales invoices or in billing records on
an accountant’s computer.
Today, with computer networks and organized marketing information systems,
effective sales analysis can be done easily and at relatively small cost—if mar-
keting managers decide they want it done. In fact, the desired information can
be obtained as a by-product of basic billing and accounts receivable procedures.
The manager simply must make sure the company captures identifying informa-
tion on important dimensions such as territory, sales reps, product model,
customer, and so forth. Then computers can easily run sales analyses and simple
trend projections.
There is no one best way to analyze sales data. Several breakdowns may be
useful—depending on the nature of the company and product and what dimensions
are relevant. Typical breakdowns include:
1. Geographic region—country, state, county, city, sales rep’s territory.
2. Product, package size, grade, or color.
3. Customer size.
4. Customer type or class of trade.
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5. Price or discount class.
6. Method of sale—online, telephone, or sales rep.
7. Financial arrangement—cash or charge.
8. Size of order.
9. Commission class.
While some sales analysis is better than none—or better than getting data too
late for action—sales breakdowns that are too detailed can drown a manager in
reports. Computers can spew out data faster than any manager can read. So wise
managers only ask for breakdowns that will help them make decisions. Further, they
use computer programs that draw graphs and figures to make it easy to see patterns
that otherwise might be hidden scrolling through online tables with a browser. But
to avoid coping with mountains of data—much of which may be irrelevant—most
managers move on to performance analysis.
Too much data can
drown a manager
Information Resources, Inc.,
developed the DataServer
Analyzer Software, illustrated
here, to make it easy to do sales
analysis and produce graphs that
make it easy to see patterns that
might otherwise be hidden in a
table of numbers.
Performance Analysis Looks for Differences
Performance analysis looks for exceptions or variations from planned performance.

In simple sales analysis, the figures are merely listed or graphed—they aren’t com-
pared against standards. In performance analysis, managers make comparisons. They
might compare one territory against another, against the same territory’s performance
last year, or against expected performance.
The purpose of performance analysis is to improve operations. The salesperson,
territory, or other factors showing poor performance can be identified and singled
out for detailed analysis and corrective action. Or outstanding performances can be
analyzed to see if the successes can be explained and made the general rule.
Performance analysis doesn’t have to be limited to sales. Other data can be ana-
lyzed too. This data may include inventory required, number of calls made, number
of orders, or the cost of various tasks.
Numbers are compared
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A performance analysis can be quite revealing, as shown in the following
example.
A manufacturer of business products sells to wholesalers through five sales reps,
each serving a separate territory. Total net sales for the year amount to $2,386,000.
Sales force compensation and expenses come to $198,000, yielding a direct-selling
expense ratio of 8.3 percent—that is, $198,000 Ϭ $2,386,000 ϫ 100.

This information—taken from a profit and loss statement—is interesting, but it
doesn’t explain what’s happening from one territory to another. To get a clearer pic-
ture, the manager compares the sales results with other data from each territory. See
Exhibits 19-4 and 19-5. Keep in mind that exhibits like these and others that fol-
low in this chapter are now very easy to generate. Common computer programs like
Microsoft Office make it easy to apply the ideas discussed here. Larger companies
make such analysis available at a website so the manager can sort out whatever is
needed.
The reps in sales areas D and E aren’t doing well. Sales are low and marketing
costs are high. Perhaps more aggressive sales reps could do a better job, but the num-
ber of customers suggests that sales potential might be low. Perhaps the whole plan
needs revision.
The figures themselves, of course, don’t provide the answers. But they do reveal
the areas that need improvement. This is the main value of performance analysis.
It’s up to management to find the remedy, either by revising or changing the mar-
keting plan.
Exhibit 19-4 Comparative Performance of Sales Reps
Order- Sales Average
Sales Total Total Call by Sales Rep Total
Area Calls Orders Ratio Sales Rep Order Customers
Exhibit 19-5 Comparative Cost of Sales Reps
Total Cost-
Sales Annual Expense Sales Rep Sales Sales
Area Compensation Payments Cost Produced Ratio
Straight performance
analysis
—
an illustration
A 1,900 1,140 60.0% $ 912,000 $800 195
B 1,500 1,000 66.7 720,000 720 160

C 1,400 700 50.0 560,000 800 140
D 1,030 279 27.1 132,000 478 60
E 820 165 20.1 62,000 374 50
Total 6,650 3,284 49.3% $2,386,000 $634 605
A $ 22,800 $11,200 $ 34,000 $ 912,000 3.7%
B 21,600 14,400 36,000 720,000 5.0
C 20,400 11,600 32,000 560,000 5.7
D 19,200 24,800 44,000 132,000 33.3
E 20,000 32,000 52,000 62,000 83.8
Total $104,000 $94,000 $198,000 $2,386,000 8.3%
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With a straight performance analysis, the marketing manager can evaluate the
variations among sales reps to try to explain the “why.” But this takes time. And
poor performances are sometimes due to problems that bare sales figures don’t reveal.
Some uncontrollable factors in a particular territory—tougher competitors or inef-
fective middlemen—may lower the sales potential. Or a territory just may not have
much potential.
To get a better check on performance effectiveness, the marketing manager com-
pares what did happen with what ought to have happened. This involves the use

of performance indexes.
When a manager sets standards—that is, quantitative measures of what ought to
happen—it’s relatively simple to compute a
performance index—a number like a
baseball batting average that shows the relation of one value to another.
Baseball batting averages are computed by dividing the actual number of hits by
the number of times at bat (the possible number of times the batter could have had
a hit) and then multiplying the result by 100 to get rid of decimal points. A sales
performance index is computed the same way—by dividing actual sales by expected
sales for the area (or sales rep, product, etc.) and then multiplying by 100. If a sales
rep is batting 82 percent, the index is 82.
We show how to compute a performance index in the following example, which
assumes that population is an effective measure of sales potential.
In Exhibit 19-6, the population of the United States is broken down by region
as a percent of the total population. The regions are Northeastern, Southern, Mid-
western, and Western.
A firm already has $1 million in sales and now wants to evaluate performance
in each region. Column 2 shows the actual sales of $1 million broken down in pro-
portion to the population in the four regions. This is what sales should be if
population were a good measure of future performance. Column 3 in Exhibit 19-6
shows the actual sales for the year for each region. Column 4 shows measures of
performance (performance indexes)—Column 3 Ϭ Column 2 ϫ 100.
The Western region isn’t doing as well as expected. It has 20 percent of the total
population—and expected sales (based on population) are $200,000. Actual sales,
however, are only $120,000. This means that the Western region’s performance
index is only 60—(120,000 Ϭ 200,000) ϫ 100—because actual sales are much
lower than expected on the basis of population. If population is a good basis for
A performance index is
like a batting average
A simple example

shows where the
problem is
Exhibit 19-6 Development of a Measure of Sales Performances (by region)
(1) (2) (3) (4)
Expected
Population Distribution
as Percent of of Sales Based Actual Performance
Regions United States on Population Sales Index
Northeastern 20 $ 200,000 $ 210,000 105
Southern 25 250,000 250,000 100
Midwestern 35 350,000 420,000 120
Western 20 200,000 120,000 60
Total 100 $1,000,000 $1,000,000
Performance Indexes Simplify Human Analysis
Comparing against
“what ought to
have happened”
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Performance analysis helps a marketing manager see if the firm’s marketing plans

are working properly—and, if they aren’t, it can lead to problem solving. But a mar-
keting manager may need a series of performance analyses, as shown in the following
example.
To get a feel for how performance analysis can be part of a problem-solving
process, follow this example carefully—one exhibit at a time. Try to anticipate the
marketing manager’s decision.
Stereo’s sales manager finds that sales for the Pacific Coast region are $130,000
below the quota of $14,500,000 (that is, actual sales are $14,370,000) for the
January through June period. The quota is based on forecast sales of the various
types of stereo equipment the company sells. Specifically, the quota is based on fore-
casts for each product type in each store in each sales rep’s territory.
Pam Dexter, the sales manager, thinks this difference isn’t too large (1.52 percent)
and is inclined to forget the matter—especially since forecasts usually err to some
extent. But she thinks about sending an e-mail message to all sales reps and district
supervisors in the region—a message aimed at stimulating sales effort.
A Series of Performance Analyses May Find the Real Problem
Sales ($000)
Quota
Actual
Los
Angeles
102%
San
Francisco
101%
Portland
93%
Seattle
98%
District:

Performance
to quota:
4,765
3,675
2,800
3,130
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
4,675
3,625
3,000
3,200
Exhibit 19-7
Sales Performance—Pacific
Coast Region, January–June
($000)
The case of Stereo, Inc.
measuring expected sales (an important if), the poor sales performance should be
analyzed further. Perhaps sales reps in the Western region aren’t working as hard as
they should. Perhaps promotion there isn’t as effective as elsewhere. Or competi-
tive products may have entered the market.
Whatever the cause, it’s clear that performance analysis does not solve problems.
Managers do that. But performance analysis does point out potential problems—
and it does this well.
Internet
Internet Exercise SPSS sells software that can be used for a variety of
purposes, including analyses of sales, cost, and customer data. Browse the
SPSS website (www.spss.com) and identify three ways that SPSS could

make it easier for a manager to do a performance analysis.
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Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
Implementing and Controlling Marketing Plans: Evolution and Revolution 565
Exhibit 19-7 shows the overall picture of Stereo’s sales on the Pacific Coast. What
do you think the manager should do?
The Portland district has the poorest performance—but it isn’t too bad. Before
writing a “let’s get with it” letter to Portland and then relaxing, the sales manager
decides to analyze the performance of the four sales reps in the Portland district.
Exhibit 19-8 shows a breakdown of the Portland figures by sales rep. What conclu-
sion or action do you suggest now?
Since Shanna Smith previously was the top sales rep, the sales manager wonders
if Smith is having trouble with some of her larger customers. Before making a dras-
tic move, she obtains an analysis of Smith’s sales to the five largest customers. See
Exhibit 19-9. What action could the sales manager take now? Should Smith be
fired?
Smith’s sales in all the large stores are down significantly—although her sales
in many small stores are holding up well. Smith’s problem seems to be general.
Perhaps she just isn’t working. Before calling her, the sales manager decides to look
at Smith’s sales of the four major products. Exhibit 19-10 shows Smith’s sales. What
action is indicated now?

Sales ($000)
900
800
700
600
500
Quota
Actual
Jane
Johnson
104%
Shanna
Smith
69%
Bill
Jones
106%
Joe
Carson
95%
Sales
representative:
Performance to
quota:
780
550
840
630
750
800

790
660
Exhibit 19-8
Sales Performance—
Portland District,
January–June ($000)
Sales ($000)
200
150
100
50
Quota
Actual
#1

46%
#2

69%
#3

57%
#4

50%
Store:
Performance
to quota:
140
65

110
70
105
60
130
65
205
150
110
140
#5

73%
Others
127%
Exhibit 19-9
Sales Performance—
Selected Stores of Shanna
Smith in Portland District,
January–June ($000)
Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002
566 Chapter 19
Smith is having real trouble with portable cassette players. Was the problem
Smith or the players?
Further analysis by product for the whole region shows that everyone on the
Pacific Coast is having trouble with portable players because customers there are
buying MP3 players that come from another company. But higher sales on other
products hid this fact. Since portable player sales are doing all right nationally, the
problem is only now showing up. You can see that this is the major problem. If
Stereo doesn’t offer an MP3 player, it will just slowly lose sales as more customers
shift to MP3.
Since overall company sales are fairly good, many sales managers wouldn’t bother
with this analysis. Some might trace the problem to Smith. But without detailed
sales records and performance analysis, they might assume that Smith—rather than
the missed opportunity to add a new product—is at fault. And Smith herself might
not be able to pinpoint what’s happening.
This case shows that total figures can be deceiving. Marketing managers need
facts to avoid rash judgments based on incomplete information. Some students want
to fire Smith after they see the store-by-store data (Exhibit 19-9).
The home office or computer network should have the records to isolate prob-
lem areas—managers then rely on the field staff for explanations and help with
locating the exact problem. Continuing detailed analysis usually gives better insights
into problems, as this case shows. With computers, managers can obtain informa-
tion routinely and in great detail, provided they ask for it.
One of the most interesting conclusions from the Stereo illustration is the
iceberg principle—much good information is hidden in summary data. Icebergs
show only about 10 percent of their mass above water level. The other 90 percent
is below water level, and not directly below either. The submerged portion almost
seems to search out ships that come too near.
The same is true of much business and marketing data. Since total sales may be

large and company activities varied, problems in one area may hide below the sur-
face. Everything looks calm and peaceful. But closer analysis may reveal jagged edges
that can severely damage or even sink the business. The 90:10 ratio—or the 80/20
rule we mentioned earlier—must not be ignored. Averaging and summarizing data
are helpful, but be sure summaries don’t hide more than they reveal.
Sales ($000)
500
400
300
200
100

Product:
Performance to
quota:
Quota
Actual

Others
100%

Speakers
110%
Stereo
turntables
100%
Portable
cassette
players
37%

Compact
disc players
114%
80
50
50
110
100
150
150
160
430
70
Exhibit 19-10
Sales Performance by
Product for Shanna Smith in
Portland District,
January–June ($000)
Stay home and use
the computer
The iceberg principle
—
90 percent is below
the surface
Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing

Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
Implementing and Controlling Marketing Plans: Evolution and Revolution 567
So far we’ve emphasized sales analysis. But sales come at a cost. And costs can and
should be analyzed and controlled too. You can see why in the case of Watanake Pack-
aging, Ltd. (WPL). WPL developed a new strategy to target the packaging needs of
producers of high-tech electronic equipment. WPL designed unique Styrofoam inserts
to protect electronic equipment during shipping. It assigned order getters to develop
new accounts and recruited agent middlemen to develop overseas markets. The whole
marketing mix was well received—and the firm’s skimming price led to good profits.
But over time competing suppliers entered the market. When marketing managers at
WPL analyzed costs, they realized their once-successful strategy was slipping. Personal
selling expense as a percent of sales had doubled because it took longer to find and
sell new accounts. It was costly to design special products for the many customers who
purchased only small quantities. Profit margins were falling too because of increased
price competition. In contrast, the analysis showed that online sales of ordinary card-
board shipping boxes for agricultural products were very profitable. So WPL stopped
calling on small electronics firms and developed a new plan to improve its website and
build the firm’s share of the less glamorous, but more profitable, cardboard box
business.
Detailed cost analysis is very useful in understanding production costs—but much
less is done with marketing cost analysis.
10
One reason is that many accountants show
little interest in their firm’s marketing process—or they don’t understand the
different marketing activities. They just treat marketing as overhead and forget
about it.

In the next chapter, when we discuss the relationship between marketing and
accounting in more detail, we’ll explain how some accountants and marketing man-
agers are working together to address this problem. For now, however, you should
see that careful analysis of most marketing costs shows that the money is spent for
a specific purpose—for example, to develop or promote a particular product or to
serve particular customers.
Marketing Cost Analysis
—
Controlling Costs Too
For a restaurant to be profitable,
the manager needs to worry not
only about satisfying customers
but also about how much each
item contributes to overall costs.
Marketing costs
have a purpose
Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e
19. Implementing and
Controlling Marketing
Plans: Evolution and
Revolution
Text
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002
568 Chapter 19
Let’s reconsider Exhibit 19-5 from this perspective. It shows that the company’s
spending on sales compensation and sales expenses varies by salesperson and mar-

ket area. By breaking out and comparing the costs of different sales reps, the
marketing manager has a much better idea of what it is costing to implement the
strategy in each sales area. In this example, it’s clear that the sales reps in sales areas
D and especially E are not only falling short in sales, but also that their costs are
high relative to other reps who are getting more results. The table shows that the
difference isn’t due to annual compensation; that’s lower. Rather, these reps have
expenses that are two or three times the average. The smaller number of total cus-
tomers in these sales areas (Exhibit 19-4) might explain the lower levels of sales,
but it probably doesn’t explain the higher expenses. Perhaps the customers are more
spread out and require more travel to reach. Here again, the cost analysis doesn’t
explain why the results are as they are—but it does direct the manager’s attention
to a specific area that needs improvement. A more detailed breakdown of costs may
help pinpoint the specific cause.
Because marketing costs have a purpose, it usually makes sense to allocate costs
to specific market segments, or customers, or to specific products. In some situations,
companies allocate costs directly to the various geographical market segments they
serve. This may let managers directly analyze the profitability of the firm’s target
markets. In other cases, companies allocate costs to specific customers or specific
products and then add these costs for market segments depending on how much of
which products each customer buys.
So far we’ve discussed general principles. But allocating costs is tricky. Some costs
are likely to be fixed for the near future, regardless of what decision is made. And
some costs are likely to be common to several products or customers, making allo-
cation difficult.
Two basic approaches to handling this allocating problem are possible—the full-
cost approach and the contribution-margin approach.
In the
full-cost approach, all costs are allocated to products, customers, or
other categories. Even fixed costs and common costs are allocated in some way.
Because all costs are allocated, we can subtract costs from sales and find the prof-

itability of various customers, products, and so on. This is of interest to some
managers.
The full-cost approach requires that difficult-to-allocate costs be split on some
basis. Here the managers assume that the work done for those costs is equally ben-
eficial to customers, to products, or to whatever group they are allocated. Sometimes
this allocation is done mechanically. But often logic can support the allocation—
if we accept the idea that marketing costs are incurred for a purpose. For example,
advertising costs not directly related to specific customers or products might be allo-
cated to all customers based on their purchases—on the theory that advertising
helps bring in the sales. We’ll go into more detail on allocating costs in the next
chapter.
When we use the
contribution-margin approach, all costs are not allocated in all
situations. Why?
When we compare various alternatives, it may be more meaningful to consider
only the costs directly related to specific alternatives. Variable costs are relevant
here.
The contribution-margin approach focuses attention on variable costs rather than
on total costs. Total costs may include some fixed costs that do not change in the
short run and can safely be ignored or some common costs that are more difficult
to allocate.
11
Allocate costs to
specific customers
and products
Should all costs
be allocated?
Full-cost approach
—
everything costs

something
Contribution-margin
—
ignores some costs to
get results